Hear/Say

was pretty great.

Woke up to a full-blown sunny day– hot, hot hot! it had to reach the upper 70′s *at least*. Visited the Design Expo down GuangFu Rd., it was pretty rad!

Taiwan’s all about hearts. Recently, the Comme De Garcon’s heart-with-eyes shirts were the new fad; but it’s regularly celebrated as hip and hot. Versus America, where it’s still popular but for a kitsch crowd.

A Louis Vuitton cutting board keeps unwanted juices from pooling on the board itself; although I’m pretty sure these fancy perforations would cause other problems. I.e. in the cutting department. But people who would by this probably wouldn’t be doing their own cooking anyway, rizight?

I was really impressed with how well-thought-out the layout of the expo was. The building space was fantastic, though– huge rooms, huge windows for lots of natural light, and the courtyard in the middle was a nice place to chill out from all this sustainability stress. That has more to do with the building, though– anyway, their creative use of space was definitely part of the design expo experience– clean, planned, and spot on (even if someone forgot to proofread some of the English translations… forgiven).

“Theme” pavilion had a two-room installation set up– these paper tubes were tangled together to create flow, becoming the gallery’s maze of walls.

Technology also apparent. Many of the designs were also of products already on the market– packaging or technological appreciations for computers, phones, speakers… etc. The typical ergonomic lamp with bamboo finish was there, but there were also cool things to buy like bauble waterbottles, stackable mugs, and… whatever else had great design. There was also a section for aboriginal art and design; pretty cool to have such a wide appreciative range of art and design on display and available.

Toyota bought their um… human vehicles? out for people to take on a four foot joy ride. There are two joysticks that fit into your hand where they rest; this obviously controls movement; note the giant overhead shield. I wish I could have found out whether or not this is for outdoor use… it would be, right? Haha I mean you wouldn’t ride this from the kitchen to your bathroom…

I would.

One of the more fashionable items (you know how sick eco-chic looks)– er, colorful. All the other plastic/rope/hemp made stuff is usually a bland beige (i.e. rope, hemp, plastic colored) but this was fantastic– dyes, beaded, oversized ornaments… giant flowers in the back.

This is a bike…?

Impressive inventions– I saw a blow-up umbrella, some sleekly designed furnitures, accordion rubber boots… a paper lamp (sounds like a fire hazard), a collapsible record-horn… and more. This one opens doors with feet; but why don’t they just create a foot mechanism rather than rely on this awkward techy tangle?

….and let me quit with a really expensive toilet scrub. it’s 69999999 $. Beat that.

Sort of reminds me of Forever 21. As a toilet accessory. Which is sort of appropriate, if you want to make a snide comment about Forever 21. They can’t touch a design expo though. They rip everyone else’s designs off– and badly, too.

It’ll be interesting to see the International Floral Expo which is being held all over Taipei! Crazy plants, right?